Telia to buy Sonera

Nordic/Baltic telecoms giant

Common Topics

Telia, Sweden's biggest telco, is to buy Sonera, its counterpart in Finland, through a stock swap. The deal represents a premium of approx 16 per cent for Sonera shareholders, based on yesterday's closing prices of the two firms.

Telia shareholders will own 64 per cent of the merged entity, while Sonera will own 36 per cent.

Headquarters will be in Stockholm and the primary stock market listing will be in Sweden. Secondary listings will be sought in Finland and the US. The companies say the deal is supported by their respective governments.

The combined company will be the biggest telco in the Nordic and Baltic regions with 8.1 million mobile customers and 7.6 million fixed line customers, while "associated companies... are expected to have 14.6 million mobile and 1.2 million fixed line subscribers".

Pro Forma group revenues are EUR9bn and there will be 34,000 employees. But how many after the merger? The companies are targeting annual savings of EUR300m. ®